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Civil Rights

After moving 1,093 miles, the Jackson home sits in Greenfield Village, where visitors can tour it beginning this weekend.

The Events That Took Place in This Selma, Alabama, Home Were Key to the Civil Rights Movement, and You Can Now Visit It

The Jackson family opened their home to civil rights leaders planning the Selma-to-Montgomery march, which led to the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The entire house was recently moved to Greenfield Village at The Henry Ford, in Dearborn, Michigan

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America at 250: The Revolutionary Spark

After the Concept of Peaceful Disobedience Was Established in America, It Traveled Around the World Before Taking Hold

“Force may subdue, but love gains”: The Quaker practice of conscientious objection evolved through Thoreau, Tolstoy and Gandhi before becoming the hallmark of the Civil Rights movement

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America at 250: The Revolutionary Spark

One of the Quietest Leaders in the Civil Rights Movement, Ella Baker Led by Encouraging Everyone to Get Involved

Baker’s work was instrumental in the success of the NAACP and other organizations, but she did it in a way that didn’t put herself in the spotlight. That was by design

The Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

America's 250th Anniversary

An Illuminating New Museum Hidden Beneath the Lincoln Memorial Is Set to Open to the Public. Here’s What You Can Expect

Tickets for the Lincoln Memorial undercroft museum are now available to reserve. When the attraction opens on June 25, visitors will get to see the D.C. landmark from a whole new perspective

Angel Island Immigration Station 

America's 250th Anniversary

To Mark America’s 250th Birthday, See the Country’s ‘Most Endangered Historic Places’ You’ve Probably Never Heard Of

From a Revolutionary War battlefield to a civil rights-era safe haven, these historic sites are at risk, according to the latest list from the National Trust for Historic Preservation

On the day of the Birmingham church bombing—September 15, 1963—white assailants also killed 13-year-old Virgil Ware (left) and 16-year-old Johnny Robinson (right).

Traveling Along the U.S. Civil Rights Trail

The 1963 Birmingham Church Bombing Killed Four Young Black Girls. But They Weren’t the Only Victims of Racial Violence in the City That Day

Hours after the attack, a police officer shot 16-year-old Johnny Robinson in the back. Then, a white teenager mortally injured 13-year-old Virgil Ware as he rode on the handlebars of his brother’s bike

The passageway stretches 15 feet underground.

This Secret Passageway May Have Been Part of the Underground Railroad. Now, Preservationists Say It’s in Danger

The Merchant’s House Museum in New York City announced its investigation into the tunnel’s history in February. A neighboring development could threaten the building’s walls and foundations

The Tougaloo Nine, from left: Joseph Jackson Jr., Geraldine Edwards, James Bradford, Evelyn Pierce, Albert Lassiter, Ethel Sawyer, Meredith Anding Jr., Janice Jackson and Alfred Cook

Traveling Along the U.S. Civil Rights Trail

Nine Black College Students Were Arrested in 1961 for Reading at a Segregated Public Library. Their Contributions to the Civil Rights Movement Have Long Been Overlooked

Known as the Tougaloo Nine, the demonstrators staged a sit-in that helped the NAACP push for the desegregation of public spaces in Mississippi’s capital

Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama

Traveling Along the U.S. Civil Rights Trail

Traveling Along the U.S. Civil Rights Trail

Take in some of the sites and landmarks across the American South that were pivotal to the Civil Rights Movement and the advancement of social justice

Jermain Wesley Loguen’s former enslaver offered to relinquish her claim on him in exchange for $1,000. But Loguen refused as a matter of principle, even turning down others’ offers to pay the fee.

Untold Stories of American History

After the ‘King of the Underground Railroad’ Escaped From Slavery, He Led 1,500 Others to Freedom

Jermain Wesley Loguen opened his home to fugitives fleeing the South. He publicized this work openly, risking arrest or even re-enslavement

The passage is located beneath the bottom drawer of this built-in dresser.

Cool Finds

Why Did a Man Build This Secret Passageway Below a Dresser Drawer Nearly 200 Years Ago? Historians Think It Was Part of the Underground Railroad

Staffers at the Merchant’s House Museum in Manhattan are unraveling the mysteries of the narrow tunnel, which is hidden beneath a piece of built-in furniture on the second floor

The Reverend Jesse Jackson attends an event commemorating the 20th anniversary of the March on Washington.

Jesse Jackson Witnessed Martin Luther King Jr.’s Assassination. Here’s How He Carried the Torch for the Civil Rights Movement Into the Future

He emerged as a leader in the 1960s and championed unity among marginalized groups across the U.S.

“If a race has no history, if it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated,” wrote Carter G. Woodson in a 1926 essay.

Traveling Along the U.S. Civil Rights Trail

A White Historian Claimed That Black People ‘Had No History.’ This Trailblazing Scholar Dedicated His Life to Proving Otherwise

Carter G. Woodson, the “father of Black history,” founded the celebration now known as Black History Month in 1926. A prolific writer and activist, he viewed his efforts to educate the public as a “life-and-death struggle”

President Lyndon B. Johnson awards the Medal of Honor to Dwight Hal Johnson on November 19, 1968.

Untold Stories of American History

History Remembered This Black Medal of Honor Recipient for the Two Worst Days of His Life. A New Book Dives Into the Vietnam Vet’s Story

Dwight Hal Johnson received the nation’s highest military honor in 1968. Three years later, he was killed during an attempted robbery at age 23

Claudette Colvin, photographed here in 1998, helped end segregation on public transportation.

Women Who Shaped History

Months Before Rosa Parks Made Headlines, Claudette Colvin Refused to Give Up Her Seat for a White Woman on a Segregated Bus

Colvin, a lesser-known figure who took a stand against racial discrimination as a teenager in Montgomery, Alabama, has died at age 86

The new Barbara Rose Johns statue was unveiled in Emancipation Hall at the U.S. Capitol on December 16.

Traveling Along the U.S. Civil Rights Trail

She Protested School Segregation as a Teenager. Now She’s Being Honored With a Statue at the U.S. Capitol

Lawmakers gathered in the Capitol for the unveiling of a bronze statue honoring teenage civil rights activist Barbara Rose Johns

The house is located in Tryon, North Carolina, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Nina Simone’s Childhood Home, Saved From Demolition Years Ago, Has Now Been Fully Restored

A group of contemporary artists purchased the house in 2017, and its long-awaited renovation began in June 2024

Demonstrators at an anti-Vietnam War protest held at Bronx Science High School in New York in April 1968

Untold Stories of American History

Newly Declassified Records Suggest Parents Collaborated With the FBI to Spy on Their Rebellious Teens During the 1960s

As high school students across the U.S. embraced political activism, adults turned to the authorities to shield their sons and daughters from radical influences

Joseph McNeil speaks about the Woolworth’s sit-in in a 2023 interview.

Joseph McNeil, Member of ‘Greensboro Four’ Who Protested Segregation at Lunch Counters, Dies at 83

McNeil and three other Black freshmen held a famous sit-in at Woolworth’s in 1960, which inspired peaceful protests across the country

The gun is now part of a permanent exhibition about TIll at the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum in Jackson.

Traveling Along the U.S. Civil Rights Trail

The Gun Linked to Emmett Till’s Murder Is Now on Display at a Museum in Mississippi

The weapon is thought to have belonged to J.W. Milam, one of the two men who kidnapped, tortured and killed the Black teenager for whistling at a white woman in a grocery store in 1955

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